Forte dei Marmi, 26 Nov. (AKI) - The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will have even more to celebrate during this year's holiday season. His latest album, 'My Christmas', is the number one album on Billboard’s holiday and classical chart in the United States and is number two on Billboard's top 200.
Bocelli's album which was released in the US on 3 November has reinforced his position as one of the most celebrated artists in the history of Italian music.
The album contains 16 timeless Christmas favourites and half a dozen cameos from artists including Natalie Cole and Mary J. Blige.
Bocelli has chosen numbers that are well known around the world including, 'I Believe', which he sang in front of an emotional Pope John Paul II, and 'Silent Night', as well as the popular Italian Christmas carol 'Tu Scendi dalle Stelle' (or 'From Starry Skies Thou Comest').
"For me 'Tu Scendi dalle Stelle' is the Christmas song par excellence," Bocelli said. "When I hear it I remember the festivities of my youth."
Bocelli said the album's producer David Foster had embellished the album with classics including, 'Angels We Have Heard on High' and 'What a Child This is'.
"Foster and I have a really beautiful rapport, before we work we play music together," he said. "Above all no-one says no to him. And thanks to him, duets like the ones with Natalie Cole and Mary J.Blige were possible."
"I grew up Catholic and I believe that faith saves us from hopelessness. It takes more courage not to believe," Bocelli said.
The tenor was not afraid to comment on the recent controversial European Court of Human Rights' decision to ban the crucifix in Italian schools.
"Removing the crucifix from the classroom? It's a provocation. So I believe that it is always better to add than to take away.
"I am all for respecting every faith but also for consistency over one's own. For example I feel more comfortable when I sing traditional Christmas songs and I would feel even more comfortable singing them in the Middle East."
Bocelli has proved once again he has enormous crossover appeal well beyond the classical market since he emerged on the international stage in the mid-1990s.
With his first Christmas album he cleverly blurs the distinction between opera and pop.
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